Dairy Free

Smoked almonds and black olives are our suggestions for this appetizer, but use any nut or olive that you like.

Treat this recipe as COOK90 nextover inspiration: instead of steaming squash, use whatever cooked leftover vegetables you have on hand for the flavorful stir-fry.

This figs recipe is sweet, salty, sticky, and acidic—everything you want in a one-bite appetizer.

Traditionally, baklava is a Middle Eastern dessert, but we fell head over heels for this savory rendition. Roasting coaxes out the earthy magic in hearty root vegetables and fennel, which are then tossed with fresh dill and baked in walnut-layered phyllo until it's golden brown.

Stuffing salad still counts as salad, right?

Traditional Greek skordalia is mostly garlic and olive oil with some potato or nuts added to thicken it. We flipped the ratio in this recipe: more potato, less garlic. Serve as a dip, or thin out with lemon juice and olive oil and use as a sauce for fish.

A quick spin in the food processor is all it takes to mix up these rustic whole-wheat crackers.

The lime juice and oil will keep the avocado from turning brown, but it’s a good idea to make this pico de gallo recipe right before you serve it.

Maple syrup pumps up the flavor of puréed sweet potatoes and provides a sweet glaze for extra-peppery candied pecans in this classic Thanksgiving side.

Zhoug is a spicy herb sauce of Yemenite origin that you find in Syria and Israel. It’s often the go-to condiment for falafel and is eaten with bread for those who want heat with every bite. It’s a must with Shakshuka, and you’ll probably find yourself stirring it into scrambled eggs, spreading it on a sandwich, mixing it with Greek yogurt to make a dip, or just eating it by the spoonful.

Shakshuka means “all mixed up” in Hebrew and is one of the most popular breakfast dishes in Israel and at Sofra. Many countries in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean claim a version of their own, like Tunisian chakchouka, made with peppers and harissa, and a Moroccan version made with lamb sausage and harissa. The eggs are poached directly in the spicy tomato sauce, so it’s important that the sauce is well seasoned and warmed before you add the eggs.

Takes the fear out of frying with a foolproof explanation and a universally loved snack as your reward.

While you can make a very nice vanilla sugar by simply plunging a vanilla bean into a jar of sugar and leaving it there (for a really, really long time), I actually like to make a slightly fancier version by processing vanilla and sugar together until the bean is all broken down and the sugar is speckled with countless tiny beans and specks of pod. The sugar is more intensely flavored than regular vanilla sugar. Packaged in a pretty glass jar, it also makes for a great gift.

Also known as advieh, this aromatic blend comes from Persian cuisine. It’s fragrant, a little sweet, and gently warming. It is delicious mixed with sugar and sprinkled over baked goods, donuts, and rice pudding or added to dried fruits that are cooking into jam. It straddles the sweet and savory world because it’s also great for flavoring rice pilaf with toasted nuts, lentil soup, lamb meatballs, braised chicken, or vegetable stew. It’s a blend that is shared by chefs and pastry chefs. Use it to make Persian-Style Carrots and Black-Eyed Peas.

One of my favorite crops from my husband’s farm are his fall carrots. I prefer the fall carrots because as the weather gets colder the vegetable sugars concentrate, yielding the sweetest carrots of the year. We use lots of carrots in this recipe, so that it’s more about the carrots than anything else. For the best flavor, serve it cold the day after you make it. You can substitute chickpeas for the black-eyed peas, if you prefer to use another type of bean.

This is the recipe given to me by Pierrette Lejanou. The addition of walnut oil at the last moment brightens the taste of the beans. Begin preparations two days before you plan to serve the cassoulet.

Traditional duck confit is not only cooked in fat but also preserved for a period of time. A true confit has a unique flavor developed as it ages in duck fat. You can make it the traditional way, buy ready-made confit, or use the cooking method described here, called sous vide (under vacuum). Recently, I learned how to use this method to make duck confit for use in Cassoulet in the Style of Toulouse, where large succulent chunks of boned meat are set between layers of beans to bake for a second long cooking. Sous vide–prepared confit will survive this extra cooking and remain flavorful and moist. Additionally, this is the easiest and least messy way to prepare this essential cassoulet component.

Probably the biggest, most versatile recipe I've ever written and it's become a model for my master-recipe formula. Here six basic components are completely transformed with simple substitutions into 18 totally different dishes.

From here grow all other vinaigrettes. Use your instincts to vary the basic recipe. My everyday dressing almost always includes a bit of mustard which helps emulsify the dressing while adding tang.